January 13 – The weather is not cooperating with beaches.  It is 15 degrees and raining heavy.  We decided to head on over to the Otaga Settlers Museum.  It was a lot like the Western Development Museum back home.

Not a real fire.

Tram car.

Dress up time.

The jacket was a bit to big for Gabe.

We managed to spend a couple hours here and then headed home for some Netflix.

Renelle’s attempt at an Instagram photo. No filters!

I think we need haircuts!

I think we need haircuts!

Renelle’s attempt at an Instagram photo. No filters!

January 14 – Still raining………..we went to Inflatable World as everyone is getting stir crazy.

These really made you sweat!

To cap off the night, we (minus Danika), went for a run up Baldwin Street.  We all ran (walked) once up the hill with our energizer bunny Gabe making two trips up, the second actually running the whole way!

January 15- Saying goodbye to Dunedin (hopefully the weather as well), we are back to Christchurch for 4 days before our flight to Phuket, Thailand.  On the way we noticed a Wallaby Park in Waimate.  This was so much fun!  This lady takes care of 60 orphaned Wallaby’s, you get to go into their paddocks and interact with them.  Really neat!

January 16- As luck would have it we are in Christchurch during their World Busker Fair called Bread & Circus (think Fringe but all over the city).  We got to see some amazing street performers and as usual I got called up on stage.  It seems I get called up often, not sure why as I hate going up on stage. – Shawn

Look at the performance!

Taking a bow.

Jan 8- We arrived in Dunedin, our Air BnB is spacious and has a BBQ, so exciting!  We decided to go check out Baldwin Street, thanks Nana for the hint.  It is the World’s Steepest Residential Street.

Not sure what this is???

Lounging on the road

Tried to make the kids the same height.

Jan. 9- We checked out the Otaga Museum, one can get lost for hours in this place.  Very neat!

Danika found a boyfriend

Some turtles are scared.

The extinct Moa.

Sayer got a picture of a Lambo, so exciting………for Sayer!

Jan.10 – The weather here has been cool.  It is around 15-20 C. We went on an art mural scavenger hunt and the kids got some new All Blacks garb.

Jan. 11 With the weather not really improving we decided to drive out to the Otaga Peninsula.  We were on a hunt for penguins, sea lions and albatross.  Much to our dismay these creatures are best viewed at around 9 at night.  We did get to take in some amazing views.

We then went to the Railway station

and finally made our way to the Dunedin Botanical Gardens and Aviary.

We have also been playing a family game of 500 that has been getting pretty competitive.

With a big catch!

Notice Renelle pushing the kids away.

Jan. 12 – We headed on to the  Science centre as the weather is not really turning around for the beaches.

The beginning of the universe simulation.

Renelle and Danika face melding.

Rube Goldberg!

Future astronauts??

The boys then headed out to the Beachlands Speedway for another car race.  The races were amazing as the kiwi’s say, racing is a full contact sport!  We saw three more roll overs and a Tow Mater tow truck to boot! – Shawn

Jan. 1 – We arrived at Christchurch and fell into a beautiful brand new condo.  It is lovely and a great home base for our week here.

Danika loving the snuggles!

Jan. 2 – After researching the many beaches, we decide to go to Woodend Beach for some boogie boarding.  It was a great day spent at the beach.

Jan. 3- We have been trying to find a good snorkel place and are told Cass Bay is the place.  With only a 30 minute drive we get to Cass Bay and spend the day.  It is calm but murky……no good for snorkelling.  We check out Corsair Bay as well and end up with the same conclusion.  We finished the day at the Canterbury Museum and a crazy free playground called Margaret Mahy.  It is designed by kids for kids.  Our kids love it!

These wetas live in the caves and eat glowworms.

The many kinds and sizes of kiwis.

Margaret Mahey

Cass Bay

Jan. 4- We headed out to the Christchurch square.  It had a farmer’s market feel.  We were watching a really good band on our left and over my right shoulder there was people holding a sign saying “Jesus Loves you”, reading the Bible while other people were heckling them, I loved it!  The boys found another race to attend, this one was the New Zealand Superstock Championship.  This is a two day event with over 80 cars attending.   The girls watched movies with Theatre popcorn.

Jan.5 – We headed to Sumner Beach and then the boys went back to the races. -Shawn

Today I will talk about the races with no rules.  We went to the races (the super-stock champs).  The first day was qualifying and the second was the big one.  There was four rolls that day and one on the first day.  I don’t remember the winner but that’s okay.- Sayer

2 days ago I went to the races and there was 4 flips and 1 guys number was 81nz and it was in the finals on the 1st lap he was doing so good on that race I think 1 guys number that flipt was number 82. – Gabriel

The returning champs flown in.

Jan. 6 – We checked out the Riccarton Sunday Market and then went to the Christchurch Art Museum.

Jan. 7- The kids were worn out by our constant movement the last few days so just Renelle and myself tried to find the last few things we wanted to see in Christchurch.  We found the “185 White Chairs”, this is a memorial of all the lives lost in the 2011 earthquake, it was a bit underwhelming.  It seemed to be just thrown in a parking lot.  We then went to the Brighton Pier and took in some people fishing.  After this we found the street art gallery and this is when Renelle really decided to start taking pictures for the day. – Shawn

Dec. 30 After waking up in our hotel, we pack the clown car and drive to Wellington.  It takes us about 5 1/2 hours.  The kids were troopers as they were encased in boogie boards, not the most comfortable trip.  We decide to Hotwire a hotel and then head out to eat a meal.  McDonald’s is literally the only option as everything is closed ,arghhhh.  It was a Sunday evening and we didn’t get to experience much of Wellington since everything was shut down for the evening.

Dec 31- We get up, re-pack our suitcases, as we need to check them in on the Bluebridge Ferry and head over to the terminal.  The Ferry across the Cook Strait is like a rolling Postcard, so beautiful.  Once again our cameras fail to catch all the beauty!  We are now on the South Island, we get our car, a brand new Toyota Corolla.  We try to pack it but the boot (trunk) is way smaller then our previous car.  The kids will need to have three luggage and boogie boards on them.  After, talking with the car rental office they upgrade us to a Rav 4.  We have so much room now we don’t know what to do with ourselves.  We connect with our place in Nelson to stay only to be told that they are full!  Hmmmm……homeless on New Years Eve.  After searching the local hostels, we find one that has 5 beds left.  2 in the girls dorm and 3 in the boys dorm.

Staying in Picton for New Years proved to be great!  They had food trucks in the bay with kids activities and live bands.  We managed to stay for the midnight firework display over the bay, really cool!

January 1st, 2019 Happy New Year!

We scoured the northern tip of the South Island, trying to find a place to stay for a couple days.  After hours of searching we found a place 4 1/2 hours away in Christchurch.  We booked it for the week and this is where we are!  – Shawn

On the 22nd we knew we would be in for a long day of driving.  We were up north near Kaitaia and we were headed to Papamo (suburb of Taraunga and a 40 minute drive from Rotorua) for four days.  It was a 6.5 hour ride and we survived it by listening to podcasts or the boys would listen to music on Sayer’s iPod.  We found a beautiful 4 bedroom house at an excellent price since we would be the first family to stay at this particular AirBnb.  I just wanted a nice place to stay at over Christmas and that wish came true.  When we walked into the house we knew we would want to stay longer here.  Less moving around is also easier.  We arranged with the owner to stay for 3 more days.  We were a one minute walk to the beach and it was a very relaxed place close enough to the things we wanted to do.

The kids were desperate to go Christmas shopping so on the 22nd and 23 that’s what we did with some beach breaks in between.  At Kmart we found a Christmas tree piñata to hang from the room to serve as our tree.  Shawn and I also slipped out to do shopping while the kids watched some movies at the house.

On the 24th it looked like a dreary day but we took the 40 minute road trip to Rotorua to visit Te Puia, the geothermal valley, to see the geysers, bubbling mud and a cultural performance.  The geysers were stunning and the bubbling mud sounded like leaping frogs, as they say themselves.  I loved the Maori performance the best though.  The singing sounded like it was a Disney movie.  There were a lot of the men sticking their tongues out and the men and women bugging their eyes out.  They said it was to intimidate their enemies prior to/during a fight.  They performed the Haka dance too which some people might know from the National All Blacks Rugby Team pregame (I had no clue but Shawn had seen it).  The dreary day was perfect for this with just a few light drizzles here and there.  The kids also enjoyed trying to find the nocturnal Kiwi bird in its dark enclosure.  They are far bigger than we thought.

When we returned home we had a nice ham supper for Christmas Eve.  The kids wanted to do a secret Santa so we all opened our $10 gifts this night and everyone was thrilled with the thoughtful gifts that were chosen for them.

Rubbing the rock for good luck.

The Pohutu geyser erupts once or twice an hour.

It can erupt up to 30 meters.

The bubbling mud pools.

They can get to 95 degrees.

The architecture shows a story in the Maori’s carving.

Welcoming us into their Marae- gathering place.

They singing and dancing was amazing.

I can’t post videos on this blog 😦

One of the carvings there. The school is also on location here.

Watching Home Alone before bed.

The kids did not sleep in especially when one who’s name starts with a D and ends in anika could not sleep and woke up her brothers and then us before it was 6:00am.  We opened presents and Santa brought boogie boards for the kids.  They were ecstatic!  And we thought Santa mustn’t have known the little space we had in our clown car.  We had Wifesavers for breakfast and then headed off to church. After mass we had lunch and then tested out the boogie boards at the beach.  There may have been a nap in the afternoon for some of us.  We looked forward to a chocolate fondue for our Christmas dessert.

I wonder what these could be.

Santa brought boogie boards!!

Santa came!!

Wifesavers for breakfast.

Testing out the boards at the beach near us.

Christmas Day supper.

A chocolate fondue we were so excited to eat.

On the 26th we went to Skyline’s luge.  The kids write more about this in their blog so I won’t say too much.  We bought 3 luge’s each but quickly realized that this wasn’t enough.  We waited 30 minutes to buy half price tickets ($6.50 now) to get 2 more luges each. There may have been a little bumping and grinding because “rubbing is racing” right?  Sayer and Dad got tangled and Sayer ended up getting spun out and someone had to help Sayer straighten his cart out because Dad was long gone.  I didn’t want our luge experience to be left on a bad note so I told Shawn he better buy another round.

Thursday the 27th was a beach day.  They also happened to find out that Santa had stuffed the piñata with waaaay too much chocolate and gummies. – Renelle

On Friday, the boys went to the Paradise Valley Speedway in Rotorua, this was one of their Christmas presents.  It was the New Zealand stock car championship.  The racing was quite a bit different then we were used to back home.  First off it was a dirt track, it appeared to  be no rules racing and it was really  exciting.  We saw non-stop contact amongst the cars and  one car flipped and another somersaulted 4 times.  It was a great time! – Shawn

On Saturday we hot-wired a hotel by Waitomo so we could see the Glowworm caves.  Since Danika was the only one old enough to go on the Labyrinth Blackwater rafting this was her Christmas present with mom.  The boys had 3 separate cave tours scheduled.  We arrived for the first cave tour the boys were to go on and the tour guide invited Danika and I along so of course we joined them.  This was the Aranui cave with beautiful stalactites hanging and we each received a few drips on us which was a sign of good luck.  After this tour we went for lunch and checked into our hotel.  Danika and I hung out at the hotel and the boys left for their tour.  It was another cave and a few minutes in a boat to view glowworms.  They came back to get us and dropped us off at our rafting tour early and headed to their final tour which they will write about.

Danika and I had a fun group of 11 others with us.  We got to climb through different crevices, walk through and float on rushing water, and jump backwards over small waterfalls.  I absolutely loved it!  Some of it we turned off our headlights and floated through the water to admire the glowworms on the tops of the caves.  They looked like blue stars.  – Renelle

This year we spent Christmas in New Zealand.  We got a nice big house in Papamoa.  Our tree was a piñata with candy in it from Santa.  We also went to church that day.  For Christmas I got some drawing stuff and a boogie board.                                                    Today I will talk about a few things.  First, the luge. It was totally awesome!  There were 3 courses. 1 – The scenic was my personal favourite. 2 – Intermediate. There were lots of hairpin corners. 3 – Advanced is a track that is more for fun.  Then we went to the races.  The cars were crashing in practice and there were two car flips.  And finally the caves.  We did three tours but I’m only going to talk about one in this tour.  We saw glowworms (maggots) and some stalak tights and I thought that the tour guide was amazing.  There was also a really cool entrance. – Sayer

Dec 26 –  On Christmas Eve we went to the beach and went body boarding.  That evening we did our own secret Santa.  I had Sayer, Sayer had me, my Mom had my Dad, my dad had Gabe, and Gabe had my Mom.  I got two squishes and some putty.  On Christmas Day we got up early and went to opening the presents.  I got from my Mom and Dad earrings, a necklace, Ferrero Roche, a wet brush and to go Black Water Rafting.  From Santa I got a boogie board, some gum, a ball type thing, some gummies and an orange.  Our Christmas tree was a piñata so a few days later we realized that our “Christmas tree” was pretty heavy so we went into the garage and hit it and got a lot of candy.                           Yesterday we went to go to the luge.  The luge is when you’re on a soap box car type thing you go down a mountain on a little paved track with a bunch of turns.  It was very fun.  There were three different runs scenic which was longest but easiest, intermediate which was in the middle and, advance which was the shortest but the hardest run.  Near the end my dad accidentally spun Sayer out.  At the end we got to decide if we wanted to go one more time or have ice-cream and I had ice-cream and it was cookies and cream -Danika

Dec 30 – Yesterday my Mom and I went black water rafting.  That is when you go in a tube in a cave (we went in a glowworm cave).  It was fun but cold.  We jumped a 2 meter waterfall you stand at the end f the waterfall facing backwards with the tube behind you and jump back while the guide pushes you.  The tube helps keep you a float but you will still go under water.  The glowworms look like little blue dots but really they are about an inch long and are maggots.  When the tour finished we went to take off the wetsuits, have a hot shower, and have some hot soup and a bagel. – Danika

Dec 30 – 4 days ago I went to the luge and it had 3 tracks and 1 of them I couldn’t go on because I was to young it was 10 and older and they wer fun.  2 days a go I went to the races they wer dert cars and they drifted on the corners there wer 3 groups that cod not drift.  2 cars flipped 1 was a teenager or a preteen and the group bumped a lot and they bumped in practice.  Today I went to 3 Cavs and 1 of them was just a normal and 1 had a boat it was short and the last 1 was a glowworms and their butt glows up.  they wer basically magets they were longer then they loct (looked) and they loct like a green dot. -Gabriel

On the chairlift up to go for another luge.

At the top of the hill.

Dad and Gabe.

At the top with our ice-cream.

Whacking the piñata with the broom and broke both. lol

Too much candy.

At a beach downtown Tauranga.

Dad had to buy a boogie board too!

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Thursday, December 20:  We drove an hour and a half north of our previous place, Okaihau.  We ended up staying at a cool hostel-type place called the Rockhouse just a short drive outside the city of Kaitaia.  We booked an excursion for the next day as soon as we arrived.  -Renelle

Friday, December 21:  Our excursion with Harrisons tour company was today.  We were to be picked up at a coffee shop and craft store just outside of Kaitaia.  The first bus didn’t stop to let us get on and that worried us a bit.  I phoned the company and a second bus came to get us.  We were all sitting individually because the bus was packed.  Once we stopped at the first destination and caught up with the other bus we moved over to the first bus since there was more room on it.  We stopped at Rarawa beach and felt the silica sand on our feet and waded in the water.  We drove to Cape Reinga the northern end of the North Island of New Zealand.  It is also known as Te Rerenga Wairu – a sacred place. In Maori belief, Cape Reinga is the departing place of the Spirits of the recently deceased.  It is also the dramatic meeting place of the Tasman and Pacific Oceans.   You can see the two colours in some of the photos.  We also enjoyed sand boarding on the sand dunes (although the hike up wasn’t as fun).  Lastly, the 4×4 tour bus drove through the Te Paki stream and soft sand as well as 73km of the 90 mile beach. – Renelle

Yesterday I came to a new place.  There is a puppy named Monty he is so cute and kind of hiper but I think he is stil cute. Today I went sandbording it was so fun I where gogols.  We went on this huge beach and on the way the bus driver said there are 30 000 000 sheep in New Zealand. – Gabriel

Today we went on a tour through the 90 mile beach.  We went sand boarding, to the beach and to go get ice cream.  I’m going to talk about those later.  First we went to go and get ice cream which was very good.  I got Boysenberry.  Next we went sand boarding.  What you do is you go on a boogie board with your feet behind you and you lift the front of the boogie board up and it is very fun.  Finally we went to the beach.  I wanted to swim but it was too cold and there was a big undertow.  So that is what I did today. – Danika

Today we went on a tour.  We went to places.  We did some cool stuff like sand boarding. It was tobogganing except not as fun.  You end up going down a sand dune and hit water.  We got ice cream.  I got rum and raisin.  It was good.  The 90 mile beach was pretty cool also.  It explains it in the name.  And the last place was where the two oceans collide, now that was COOL. – Sayer

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New Zealand so far.

First 13 hour flight.

Gabe, Renelle and a new friend, Karen

In our clown car.

First photo of the beautiful scenery here.

In the paddock with the cows and one bull.

Kids making their own trees with materials from Lindy.

Our AirBnb hosts business.

The hole in the rock on our tour.

Last night with Rick and Lindy.

At a waterfall outside the town of Paihia.

One beach stop on our boat tour at Otehei Bay.

Petting the cattle.

Catching lollies at the parade.

At the island stop on our tour.

The super fast slide.

Boom-netting.

Looking at the sea and enjoying the bumps.

I was so close to ringing the bell.

At the bottom of the fast slide.

Body surfing in the warm water.

Getting a lift with Rick.

Making mozzarella cheese with Lindy.

At Otehei Bay.

We saw dolphins!

The egg toss at the town games.

Waiariki hot pools. Ngawha Springs

Playing at the Paihia beach.

A boat going through the hole in the rock.

At the island stop.

Scuba Steve!

The expert on the big ball jump.

The waves got him!

Iain the bull.

Here is Our Chile Family Top 10

Number 10…….Transportation

* we took the subway in Santiago.

* coach buses with semi-cama seats, snacks and really violent movies on the tv.

* two manual vehicle rentals.

* the taxi cabs, they were always honest and reliable.

* especially our singing taxi driver, Pedro.

Number 9….Happyland/Beast

• Think Ruckers but with really crazy bumper cars.
• And a huge inflatable obstacle course.

Number 8…. Dogs and other Animals

• Stray friendly dogs at every turn
• Puppies
• Sea lions
• Vicunas
• Alpacas
• Llamas
• Andean Fox
• Lesser Rhea with chicks in tow
• Flamingos
• Whiskers, the stray cat we adopted for one week in Bahia Inglesa.

Number 7….Chilean People

• Us knowing no Spanish but still so welcomed.
• Very friendly and helpful.

Number 6…Santiago

• The relaxed feel of the city.
• An amazing subway system.
• Parks everywhere.
• “Helado, lado, lado.” (ice cream sellers)
• Museum

Number 5…Food

• Empanadas
• Chicha
• Cotton candy
• Chocolate fruit
• Helado
• Strawberries
• Bonbon
• Mote Con Huesillo
• Inca Cola

Number 4…Family Time

• Family movies in one bed.
• Card games a’ many
• Deep conversations

Number 3…..Playas (Beaches)

• Jelly fish
• Crabs
• Tide pools
• Body boarding
• Wave jumping
• Sea lions
• Swimming to the platform
• Hunting shells
• Being buried
• Pigeons trying to eat crackers
• Bahia Inglesa

Number 2……Trip Through the Andes

• 29 switchbacks
• Amazing views
• Horseback riding
• Hot springs
• Reg and Sue, really great hosts.
• Lujan de Cuyo

And our number 1 thing in Chile……..Atacama Desert

• Salt Caves
• Laguna Baltinache
• Rainbow Valley
• San Pedro
• Truly nowhere else on Earth like it!

And just to be realists here is our Family List of 7 Things We will not miss about Chile.

1. Dogs- poop everywhere, barking all night (these were the pet dogs not the strays.)
2. Pick pockets………booo, phone gone.
3. Toilet paper in garbage not in the toilet.
4. Humboldt Current- made for really cold ocean water.
5. Tiny kitchens, Dirty walls and floors
6. Termites- serious infestation in one place we stayed.
7. Instant coffee- EVERYWHERE! (this just effected dad).

-Gabriel, Sayer, Danika, Renelle and Shawn

November 27 and 28- After a quick 5 hour bus ride we arrive in Antofagasta, our cab driver, Pedro picks us up and we are on our way to our Airbnb stay.  The house is huge, it even has a hallway for the boys to play hand hockey.  The host tells us there are a few termites and that this is normal in Chile.  We think…..no problem.  Renelle and I are making our way to bed the first night here and there are at least 30 – 50 termites flying around in the hallway.  It was disgusting!  I end up killing them as they are very slow.  We turn on the living room light to attract them away from our bedrooms.  In the morning we see around 50 wings laying on the floor underneath the light that was left on.  After some research online and a closer inspection of the house we realize that it is absolutely infested with termites.  We cancel our booking and move on, renting a hotel room for one night.  We ended up going to Happyland (think Ruckers). – Shawn

Sayer learning the hard way!

Tower of Terror

“Still got it!”

November 29 – December 1 – After arriving in our new place we realize that we are on the outskirts of town.  Our place has two pools (which one needs swimming caps to enter).  We are getting a bit stir crazy here as there is really nothing around here.  Tomorrow we are going to experience a Chilean circus. – Shawn

Dec 1 – Gabe lost his second tooth on our trip.  He was hoping to keep it in his mouth until we get to New Zealand so he could get some New Zealand money.  We have hidden the tooth from the Tooth Fairy and Gabe will put it under his pillow when we arrive in New Zealand.

December 3- Yesterday I went to a circus and there was a guy who was on a bike riding on a tight rope high up. – Gabriel

Under the Big Top. We had bleacher seats and when the show was about to start we all moved up closer. Front row!

He was skipping on the top of this and nearly fell off.

December 4- After realizing that to get to a beach is a $20 cab ride one way, we decide to rent a car.  We drove north hoping to find Mejillones.  It was a nice reprieve from our boredom of hanging around our apartment. – Shawn

La Portada

Taking aim.

Gabe’s flip-foots. One shoe broke.

December 5- Today I will talk about Antofagasta, it is a nice place.  There are beaches and malls it is quite a fun place.  We have been to the beach the water temperature is not too cold, the waves are pretty big.  We rented a car so we could drive places.  We went on The Beast (which is a huge bouncy castle).  I went on it 7 times.  That’s all for today. – Sayer

December 6-7- Beach days and family movie nights!!!!

Movie night!

Mote con Huesillo

We took a 5 hour bus ride from Antofagasta to San Pedro on November 20.  When we arrived our Airbnb host Felipe picked us up from the bus depot and brought us to our place.  It was a cute 2 bedroom cabin with no TV and a 15 minute walk to town.  We arrived at 6:00 so we got settled and walked to town for some empanadas and groceries.  The next day we walked to town to get our bearings in this cute town.  We found a well stocked grocery store (for this town) and arranged a rental car to be picked up the next day. – Renelle

As we were driving to our Airbnb

Bought some eggs. Sold individually.

A view of the volcano by our place.

Today I will talk about our day in San Pedro on November 22. We started our day off with going to pick up the rental truck, it was a nice red truck and it got us to were we wanted to go so I will say it was pretty nice.We drove to the salt cave first it was my favourite stop, It was part cave   and part not. I collected some salt rocks I think there pretty cool. After that we went to the dunes it was a tiring. The three Mary’s were next, it was cool describing the 1,000,000 years old rocks that were to look like Mary. We got some pictures and moved on.Now off to the salt mines, it was amazing seeing that they don’t have to dig deep because the salt is right at the surface, we could hear the salt crack.

November 25 – Today I will talk about San Pedro de Atacama (desert).  We started the day of early with some French toast, it was really good.  After that we hopped into the truck and drove away.  First stop, Flamingo Park.  We arrived, now time to go see some flamingos.  There were some flying ones, some just eating.  Now to the Salt Springs, long bumpy road but we made it there.  The water was cold and we floated so much.  By the time we got out we were so salty.  Time to go home, bye.  – Sayer

Entering the salt cave.

At Coyote Point. People used to be able to stand on the rock in the background to take photos. It is chained off now due to a crack from people jumping on it.

The three Mary’s.

The salt mine.

Nov 22 – Today we went to Valle de la Lunar – Moon Valley.  At Moon Valley we went in caves of salt, we saw canyons, saw the sand dunes, an did a ton of walking.

In the salt caverns we saw…..well salt.  When you put a flashlight against the salt, the salt looks like a crystal.  In the cave there was some parts that were narrow and some parts you have to crawl through.  Since we were in the desert there was a lot of dust so it was pretty slippery.

At the canyons there was so much rock.  The rock was very pretty and the colour was reddish brown.  We took so many pictures it was crazy.

The sand dunes were the prettiest things there.  When the top of the sand dunes and the sky met it was so pretty.  We took a picture of it but it didn’t have the same effect. The worst part of Moon Valley was all of the walking, that sucked.

November 26 – Yesterday we went to Laguna de Chaxa (Chaxa Lake), it is a flamingo preserve.  At the Flamingo Preserve we saw three different types of flamingos.  There were the James Flamingo, the Chilean flamingo and the Andean flamingo.

After the Flamingo Preserve we went to the Laguna de Baltinache, the salt water laguna.  At the laguna you can float, you really can’t get your feet under the water.  Once you get out of the laguna and you are dry you feel like a corn on the cob, you have so much salt on it kind of burns.  It seems like the workers there want to season you up and eat you for dinner.

At the end of the day we decided to go look at the stars.  Since we are in the Atacama desert, it is the best place you will ever see the stars.  It was very pretty but after a long day we decided to go home and get ready for bed.  – Danika

November 22, 2018 Today I went to some salt caves and there is a salt hole and the salt was falling down.  There is a place that is too dangerous for kids.  We tasted salt. The caves were dark and we needed a flashlight at the Atacama Desert. – Gabriel

November 23 – Today we went to the market and we got some toques.  My mom got a keychain and it was a tiny toque. When we got in the Atacama Desert we picked  up hitchhikers (Just before we arrived to San Pedro a couple hopped into the box of the truck) –  Gabriel

November 26 – 2018  Yesterday  we got to float in the lagoon that is full of salt and we did high 10 with our feet and I got some water in my mouth and I choked and a guy gave me water. – Gabriel

We got to go to Rainbow Rock, and we saw a bunch of colours on the rock…..oooh I just got an idea…..at one stage there was a llama is it a llama, or an alpaca making so much dust.  And we saw one of them that looked like my stuffy Oscar.  That’s it. – dictated by Gabriel

Floating in the lagoon.

We saw many alpacas when we went to look at the petroglyphs.

Our new toques under the full moon.

At Valle de la Luna.

Overlooking a huge sand dune.

In the cave prepared with flashlights.

Nov 22  San Pedro de Atacama is truly unique and amazing!  I had great expectations for the desert and I must say it has exceeded everyone of them thus far.  From our little cabin we stay in to the town that brings you back seemingly 100 years to the Valle De Luna which was awe inspiring!  Renting a truck is proving to be a great choice.  Not only cheaper then the tours (by quite a bit) it allows us to go at our own pace and see the sights without a bunch of other tourists for the most part.  The truck being a manual transmission has led to a lot of talk about how vehicles run as well.  We even got to use the box of the truck by picking up hitchhikers on the way back to town.

Nov 26 – This is the first place I have been truly disappointed in leaving.  It was an amazing experience where every turn seems to have a totally different landscape which made for incredible sights.  We went to the Valle de Acrosis (Rainbow Rock) yesterday.  The different colours of rocks in this valley are awe inspiring!  A definite must to see.  When one travels Chile, they are told numerous times to visit the desert, and now I know why.  It can not be over stated how magical this place is!  Now back to Antofagasta to catch our breath before New Zealand. –  Shawn

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